It’s Trump’s Good Ole Piranhas now…
After purging Rep. Liz Cheney from its House leadership, the Good Ole Piranhas have overwhelmingly declared their fealty to their lord and master Donald J. Trump aka Il Duce. Not their voters, mind you; just GOP House members like Kevin McCarthy, Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and other toadies who’ve drunk Trump’s Kool-Aid; in other words, the so-called conservative Republicans have shed their skins to reveal that they’re really fascist snakes who now publicly proclaim “Sieg Heil!” as they salute their fuehrer. This is a sad time for democracy in America!
Why sad? After all, the destruction of Eisehower and Reagan’s party—Lincoln’s party, for that matter—is good for progressives, right? Yes and no. Sure, it will allow progressives to move the country forward. Eisenhower can turn over in his grave, but the progressives won’t have to put any brakes on in their rush to change America’s ways.
But no, progressives can run amok just like fascists. I might be a progressive, but I’ll dare to speak heresy by stating that we need true conservatives (emphasis on “true”), conservatives like Romney, Cheney, and Kinzinger. They’re a dying species in government, but they’re common among voters, even in the Democratic party and independents. Trump and his followers aren’t true conservatives. Sure, they might use some conservative talking points to hoodwink the true conservatives, practicing the ancient art of snake-oil salesmen (although there are many women as well), but they’re fascists. Fascism is a catch-all term to describe these demented folks, summing up their characteristics as haters, bigots, racists, religious extremists, and other greedy, power-hungry narcissists and sociopaths. I saw this many times in the faces at work; I see it on my TV screen every day now, leering, sneering, holier-than-thou, and insane faces. They don’t have to say much—their body language is enough for this observer of human nature.
The politicians among them are all Putin wannabes who envy that old KGB leader who holds Russia in his death grip. Why not? Putin owns a whole damn country after all, having reached a pinnacle of power that only Trump the Loser and his toadies can dream about…and I have nightmares about!
On the other hand, you have Bernie, the Squad, and others like them, perhaps good-intentioned progressives (although evidence is accumulating that they’re hungry for power too). These folks might have some good ideas, but they all too often lack the common sense to see the consequences of their proposed policies. Defund the police and replace them with social workers; offer free health care, child care, and education for all, paid for by the state; slash DoD funding and use the savings for social programs; etc., etc. True conservatives are needed to rein in that exuberance, adding some common-sense brakes to the progressives’ runaway train before it derails. Maybe consider things a bit more sedately to ponder what the government should or should not do a bit more.
I’ve often written about the Goldilocks Principle in these pages. It’s all about balance. True conservatives balance rabid progressivism. The scales might tip one way or the other over our lifetimes, but they should never be just one or the other.
Yes, true conservatives are necessary. Lamentably, Liz Cheney and others are being hunted, and they might become extinct before their mascot-animals are. Already marked for extinction by Newt Gingrich and his Tea-Party wingnuts, fascist Trump and his maniacal followers are out to make them extinct. The purge of Ms. Cheney spells doom for the traditional GOP. All the fascists in the Good Ole Piranhas will accomplish by their autocratic tactics is to give her a public platform that will hasten the death of the party. Hopefully the true conservatives can create an alternate party that offers a home to the anti-Trump forces (there’s a movement among the old guard, which includes Cheney, to do exactly that—150+ signed on to call the current congressional leaders to task for promoting the Big Lie and denying the insurrection), those who believe a fascist America is an evil America akin to Nazi Germany. I imagine that new home would certainly feel more comfortable for them than the center of the Democratic party as well as the Good Ole Piranhas.
In any case, we are all witnesses to the death of the traditional GOP as a home to true conservatives. America needs to solve this problem. Otherwise, what will also die is American democracy where the whole spectrum of political idealism, from progressivism to conservatism, can debate in the public forum.
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Comments are always welcome.
Palettes, Patriots, and Prats: Esther Brookstone Art Detective, Book Four. Esther Brookstone, ex-Scotland Yard inspector in the Art and Antiques Division and ex-MI6 spy during the Cold War, and new husband, Bastiann van Coevorden, have just returned from their honeymoon cruise down the Danube, refreshed and reinvigorated despite Bastiann’s having to handle a murder investigation as his last assignment as an Interpol agent. Esther is content running her gallery, and Bastiann works as a consultant for MI5. They hope to enjoy their active golden years together, but more adventures as sleuths await them, colliding with their idyllic existence, as they aid an American artist, try to thwart a Russian assassin, and go after the illegal art trade and human traffickers. Mystery, suspense, thrills, and intrigue once more await readers. Available at Draft2Digital’s affiliated retailers (Apple, B&N, Kobo, etc., but not Amazon or Smashwords) and library and lending services (Scribd, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor, etc.)
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
